Development has had major impact on environment, quality of life

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I was deeply disturbed by Mayor Lisa Sulka’s recent remarks in her weekly commentary, and I quote: “...development is not necessarily the reason for the high bacteria concentrations” in our rivers.

Well, if her administration as well as her predecessors would have listened to the many people such as Dr. Holland that tried time and again to tell her and others that the urban sprawl type of development which has been put into place for 90 percent of southern Beaufort County would have dire consequences on our estuaries as well as our way and quality of life.

Unfortunately, in my wanderings through our community I am hearing more and more people complaining about the effects of this type of development. Some of these complaints are parking issues, noise issues on Calhoun Street, increased traffic, the new Parker’s, no wake zones, as well as the unfortunate fact that you can’t eat certain fish out of the New River or harvest oysters out of vast parts of the May and Okatie rivers.

However, if you are one of these people who believe, like our mayor, that the 50,000 or so new people who are slated to come to our once pristine environment, bringing all of the Walmarts, etc., will not have a tremendous impact on our estuaries and quality of life, dream on.